Suppressed Metal?

[Norsemaiden]

Do you agree that certain types of music are hyped by the media (eg rap and hiphop) more than others, which are suppressed (eg. metal and classical) and given less attention despite their actual (and potential) popularity?

Is part of the reason metal bands are so prevalent in Scandinavia something to do with the way their media has allowed it to flourish there, or is it purely something inherent in the Scandinavian character? (Both IMO)

 

[Vital Remains]

if metal was hyped most people would listen, but then guys and gals like us would be listening to the more backgroundish styles of music like rap, lol.

 

[Anvil]

I doubt that, Vital Remains, only because in factuality, a majority of metalfans are in it for the actual skill, power, intensity, and the fact that its not easy to do this kind of stuff.

Rap, Hip Hop, the media stuff right now... Thats not hard. I can create a Hip Hop song in a matter of 30 minutes on my computer with a computer microphone. It doesn't take skill to create some of that stuff nowadays.

 

[entanglement]

I have a friend whom I gave an audio file too. The file was Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' played backwards, which is supposed to have a satanic message hidden in it. She accepted the file, and I told her what it was.

I said, "Did you give it a listen? What do you think?"

She said, "No RJ. To be honest, shit like that scares me. I'll get nightmares at night".

The other day, I asked another friend of mine about her favourite bands, and she says "Matchbox Twenty, Coldplay, Radiohead...". I asked if she likes any metal, and she goes "No I don't listen to that. Its Satanic music."

People run away from metal or 'dark music' (general perception) because its the oppositte of what their religions tell them is right. The lyrical and musical themes conflict with what is and has been the foundation of our soceity. Religion.

 

[Vital Remains]

I doubt that, Vital Remains, only because in factuality, a majority of metalfans are in it for the actual skill, power, intensity, and the fact that its not easy to do this kind of stuff.

Rap, Hip Hop, the media stuff right now... Thats not hard. I can create a Hip Hop song in a matter of 30 minutes on my computer with a computer microphone. It doesn't take skill to create some of that stuff nowadays.

I DOUBT YOU GOOD SIR!! haha jk. i see what your sayin

 

[Horus]

If Metal were more hyped, then the idea of independent thinking would also seem apetizing to people, since Metal usually goes hand in hand with individuality. If people thought differently, then it would be harder for the man to easily control the masses. I personally think that musical taste is directly related to what the media is interested in.

 

[entanglement]

Or maybe people in general don't wanna work their brain so much? Or maybe the average IQ level is too low?

 

[War_Blade]

I find it kinda amusing when Music tastes come up i say i listen to metal and people aways give the strangest look. As if they didn't know even though i am wearing an iron maiden shirt or something and all black. There general reaction is "oh, that music is horrible i can't even stand it." I love playing the "are you a musician?" card on them.

 

[infoterror]

We are oppressed by the fact that most people are morons, and like moronic music.

Solution? EUGENICS.

 

[Vital Remains]

We are oppressed by the fact that most people are morons, and like moronic music.

Solution? EUGENICS.

haha theres that stubborn metal mentality.

 

[Anvil]

We are oppressed by the fact that most people are morons, and like moronic music.

Solution? EUGENICS.

<3

 

[unknown]

I'd be up for Eugenics

EDIT: says the person with "Assassin Droid" as the title *cough*

 

[Norsemaiden]

I should quote my post from "the obsession with music" thread, as it is what inspired this thread. They must surely hype hiphop in Scandinavian countries too, so maybe the popularity of metal there is a lot more to do with the type of people living there. The marks given to Lordi on the Eurovision song contest showed a substantial preference for hard rock in the north of Europe compared with the south (notwithstanding that Lordi is Finnish).

QUOTE:
"I don't know if its as obvious in the US as it is in the UK, but the rap/hip hop , which seems to have been around unchanged for about 20 years, is really promoted as being trendy in the media. Meanwhile, metal is held at arms' length and allocated very little radio time - disproportionately small compared with its popularity. Classical music is also conspicuously pushed to the sidelines - while jazz tends to recieve attention.

All of this is political. If you can get white kids admiring the worst kind of blacks and wishing they were them - copying "gangsta" behaviour, gestures,walk and carribean accents - you will change the culture. For certain reasons that's what those who run our society are encouraging.

It's not purely market driven. They wanted metal to go away, but it didn't. So they were forced to see what could be done to hype their approved (often manufactured) bands and their preferred image. Some kinds of metal are threatening to the system: those that have complex melodies comparable to classical music - as opposed to integrating rap influences; those that promote paganism - as opposed to satanism; those that encourage fierceness and bravery - as opposed to sickness, depravity and decadence. I wish anyone who plays in a band would consider this when they compose music - so long as they don't take the prescribed route to commercial success!

To use a historical example. The system likes Motley Crue much better than Metallica. Metallica only got famous because their popularity couldn't be ignored, yet they have been very under-represented by the media, considering they sold 13 million copies of "Metallica" , 3 million more than Madonna's best selling album "Like a Virgin"."

 

[Norsemaiden]

if metal was hyped most people would listen, but then guys and gals like us would be listening to the more backgroundish styles of music like rap, lol.

The only kind of metal that could conceivably get hyped would be that which is considered unthreatening to the system, and better still, that which pollutes the metal genre and distracts from the threatening forms of it.

I don't like metal purely as a form of rebellion. In fact that never motivated me at all. There's no way I would be into rap if that was the music that was suppressed due to its possible counteractive effect on the agenda of those who rule us.

Many people who listen to rap actually believe that it IS rebellious. They think the promotion of gangsta culture is challenging and confrontational to the (wrongly) perceived concervatism of the establishment. Even punk was actually hyped in the 70s. It's iconoclasm had its uses at that time. People don't realise how much they are manipulated.

 

[Vital Remains]

The only kind of metal that could conceivably get hyped would be that which is considered unthreatening to the system, and better still, that which pollutes the metal genre and distracts from the threatening forms of it.

.

haha trivium. i cant believe i liked that band for almost two months. thats what i thoguh of as soon as i read this.

 

[Norsemaiden]

Varg Vikernes has some interesting things to say about some media manipulations of metal in his criticisms of the book "Lords Of Chaos: The Bloody Rise Of The Satanic Metal Underground" by M. Moynihan & D. Søderlind.

"It is as irrelevant as it would be to talk about The Church of Satan as a source of inspiration in context with the Black Metal underground of 1991 and 1992. But of course, they do that too! I am even accused of having read La Vey's "Satanic Bible"."

"suspicious that the authors "forget" to tell or fail to find out that Aarseth, I and everybody else in the Norwegian Black Metal scene in 1991 and 1992 despised both Crowley and La Vey and everything they stood for!"

"So contrary to what the authors claim, with the possible exception of Aarseth, not a single soul took Venom seriously, not a single soul was influenced by Venom, not a single soul even liked Venom - and that includes Hellhammer of Mayhem too (Necrobutcher wasn't a part of the scene at the time, as he had a break from playing music). Still they keep nagging about Venom throughout the book, and list them as some sort of origin to the whole movement and the ideas it was built upon."

"The authors have managed to fill the heads of a generation of metal fans with lies. What could have been a righteous revolt has been made into some pathetic, embarrassing, brain-dead, impotent and traditional poser-culture best exemplified by bands like Dimmu Borgir - and indeed Venom!"

http://www.burzum.org/eng/library/lords_of_chaos_review.shtml

I also found a very long article about "false metal" that is relevant and makes some appropriate points.
(Infoterror should comment as he is far more qualfied in the subject than I am.)

 

[Vital Remains]

haha dimmu borgir is indeed a discountenance to the metal genre. never listened to venom much. didnt really like what i did hear

 

[War_Blade]

mayhem pwns

 

[infoterror]

I also found a very long article about "false metal" that is relevant and makes some appropriate points.
(Infoterror should comment as he is far more qualfied in the subject than I am.)

False metal is like all false art: it's designed to please an audience with neutral-positive experience instead of bring them a transcendent, vivid and realistic experience.

Burzum takes you places. Amon Amarth is pleasant background noise.

That's all the expertise I have (but I'm flattered to have our EU Emperor candidate mention me).

 

[Norsemaiden]

There are some interesting points in this article: False Metal:The Financial and Farcical Return of Heavy Metal, by Dave Burns.

He refers to music journalists as being: "tastemakers instead of reporters".

"When Black Sabbath exploded on American shores in the early 1970s, the music industry did not embrace or champion the band and thought the lads from Birmingham were an inexplicable pathological phenomenon that needed to be tolerated due to the money rolling in from albums and concerts."

"In fact, fucking around was one of the farthest things from Osbourne's mind, and crafting vapid hits for an industry that wanted to put a thoughtless smile on the faces of listeners was not an option"

[Note: Everyone knows Ozzy is a very commercial product by now, thanks to his very materialistic and ambitious wife!]

"Nobody built them up. We heard their music before we heard about them. It's like we discovered them ourselves." - said a Sabbath fan.


"John Mortimer was still guided by these anti-industry principles two decades later and condemned the commercial metal of the mid-to-late 1990s because "the whole thing has turned into one giant marketing campaign" and believed Slipknot was not metal at all, because the band was "just another product" assembled and airbrushed by a "bunch of cigar smoking, stuffed suits [who] got around a conference table."

Several bands have written lyrics denigrating the industry and how the industry tries to mold bands to their idea of what is commercial. Eg. Anthrax lyrics to "Immitation of Life":

"There's nothing I hate more than all these plastic people,
With all their plastic promises, and all their plastic deals.
They just can't be themselves and live their own lives out.
They're just an imitation of what life's all about."

In the context of what I have been writing about "true" metal is metal that was not created out of a commercial desire, but out of a purely creative desire. In the music industry the term "true metal" is routinely used to "indicate that a particular band is playing metal with roots extending back into the traditional territory of the 1980s", which is another thing entirely!

"In fact, metal in the broadest sense of the term has become so perverted that false metal is now making a triumphant charge into the mainstream disguised as true metal with the assistance of a corrupt and venal metal press."